Nearly 30 years later, Malcolm Baldrige, while serving as Secretary of Commerce in 1984 was quoted as saying, “the current boom in Las Vegas could last four more years.”

It appears technology has moved the world one small step closer to a sound money. On Wednesday, a hotel in Abu Dhabi unveiled the GOLD To Go ATM, a gold dispensing vending machine created by a German firm. The machine dispenses 24-carat gold bars in 1, 5, and 10 gram sizes as well as gold coins. A computer inside the machine keeps track of the gold price in real time and updates it every ten seconds but maintains the price for a given buyer for ten minutes. The machine itself sports a gold leaf finish.

We see stock quotes every day, but what’s happening with the prices of Subways and nail salons? Although the title to this article indicates that the price of small businesses in Las Vegas are on the upswing, you don’t have to read down very far to see, “It’s definitely a lot tougher market than it was two years ago, but people feel it’s on the rebound,” [BizBuySell general manager Mike] Handelsman said.

[This essay is excerpted from chapter 3 of Murray N. Rothbard’s Power and Market: Government and Economy.]
 

Countrywide Mortgage CEO Angelo Mozilo believes that the “housing market officially turned south in January,” according to Banc Investment Daily, and that some overheated markets may see prices plunge by up to 40 percent. Mozilo mentioned Las Vegas as one of those risky markets.

History was again made in Bodrum recently with the inaugural meeting of the Property and Freedom Society, the brainchild of Professor Hans-Hermann Hoppe.

The price of gold’s collapse of $44 one day last week prompted a quick call to Camino Coin. Sales on gold have been few and far between this year and the sudden move below $600 per ounce was too good of a buying opportunity to pass up. However, in addition to selling me cheaper insurance against the coming dollar collapse, my guy at Camino was interested in learning more about the first Property and Freedom Society conference held last month in Bodrum, Turkey.

Local government growth-management planning has been a bone of contention during debates in Nevada between Democratic gubernatorial candidates state Sen. Dina Titus and Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson. Titus championed a bill in the 1997 Legislature that would have limited development in Clark County. The measure, based upon restrictions used in Portland, Ore., would have severely limited development outside of a “ring around the valley.”

What do you suppose the prospects are for a single mother who drops out of high school? Big government types point to these women as a shining example of a group that any rich, compassionate society needs to take care of. “What would happen if we turn our backs on these women and their families?” “We can’t let them fall through the cracks.”